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A few reasons why Copenhagen is modern, rich, environmentally responsible city worth visiting

This was my second visit to Copenhagen, if sleeping one night in hotel and spending a couple of hours walking along one street in center can be called a visit. At that time it was a cold and snowy winter and I arrived just 10 minutes before all the shops closed. I walked alone along the main street and did not really experience Copenhagen at all.

Our trip started a bit hectic since Dublin buses were on strike and we rushed to the airport trying to avoid the traffic jam. We made it in time and in the end the plane was almost two hours late so we got stuck in a pub at the airport doing nothing.

We finally arrived to Copenhagen around eleven PM and took the first possible metro to Nørreport station. Ride that takes around thirty minutes started in an empty metro but after just a few stops a lot of young Danes joined the ride.

It was obvious that Friday nights are those to be in Copenhagen, if you plan to have fun. A young and very drunk lady, that obviously fell several times as her knee was bleeding and tights were torn in several places, tried to seduce the passenger in front of us. It was hilarious while her friends tried to stop her in that embarrassment.

Luckily her stop, Nørreport, arrived just in time to leave the metro without being totally embarrassed. This was our stop too and from there we went to the Gorki bar where we picked up the keys of our another AirBnB stay.

We walked the way from Gorki bar to our apartment in Nørrebro part of the city. It was just a ten minute walk and it was enough to remind me that this is the city of bicycles. I recall how, back in 2005/6, I was astonished with the fact that people in Copenhagen cycle no matter that there is 20 centimetres of snow, storm, and terrible cold wind.

It was almost midnight, and when the traffic lights turned green, we’ve seen a group of young Danes going out or returning home on bicycles! Awesome! 🙂

We found our apartment and went to sleep soon, as we had plans for an early start next day.

Gods of awesome weather were on our side once again since there were just a few clouds visible on the sky throughout whole next day. That fact definitely influenced our opinion, as everything looks way better when it’s lovely and sunny. But no, for real, Copenhagen is clean, nice, and modern at first sight. During our morning walk to Nyhavn we immediately figured out that people here follow the rules. Cyclist stop on the red light and give precedence to pedestrians, cars are stopping and giving precedence to cyclists and pedestrians, and whole place seems to be in perfect harmony.

We walked all the way to Nyhavn where we sat down to have a breakfast. Well, OK, there were two minor incidents in Nyhavn that morning. One involving a black guy and workers in the night club next to the restaurant where we had breakfast, where obviously someone used the n-word, and other – less important – where waitress was so confused that she managed to forget my order twice. 🙂

Finally, after almost one hour I got my brunch and enjoyed it in short sleeves outside in the sun.

After the breakfast in Nyhavn we started our city exploration. Nyhavn is a lovely colourful port in the city centre that was built because, at a time, king wanted to have a port and ships closer to the centre so that people can enjoy them.

Since obviously sun is not so regular in Denmark, people tend to use every chance to warm up and soak some vitamin D. This guy came to Nyhavn, and just laid down to enjoy the sun. He was not drunk or in any other way intoxicated. He was laying down for 30 minutes and then got up and went to work. 🙂

Later we’ve read somewhere a tip that tourists sit in the restaurants, and that locals buy beer “to go” and sit on the docks. And you would not believe that. The whole Nyhavn port was loaded with people sitting on the docks, drinking beer, enjoying the day. (Check the big photo behind the text, or click “-” above the title to actually hide the text and see the photo. 🙂 )

we took the cruise along city canals, that starts and ends here in Nyhavn. It takes one hour in which you’ll see and learn a lot and on a nice day like we had then, you’ll get better shots of the little mermaid than waiting for hundreds of tourists to let you come closer. 🙂

Along the cruise we’ve seen old ships, artificial islands in Christianshavn such as Paper Island, one island where the king wanted to move people and had let them live here for twelve years without paying taxes, and island where new and modern opera is located.

You’ll see the theatre, kings palace, houses on the canals, few houses of Christiania, Church of Our Saviour, old stock exchange, city council, and many bridges above our heads. If you are lucky as we were, you will see the royal frigate docked near the military base. 🙂

Besides regular touristy things, there were some irregular things on the canals, like this Lego character that was sailing around. 🙂 Well, since Lego is made in Denmark, maybe that’s also a regular thing here. 🙂

Once we finished the cruise we took a long walk to the Church of Our Saviour. It’s tower is the tallest building in the city and you can climb around 400 stairs to reach the top and have a few great shots. What’s interesting is that stairs are going all the way to the top, but are getting narrower with every step. For example they were so narrow that I could not climb the last 10-15 stairs. I guess only kids can reach the very last step. 🙂

We used the opportunity to take our traditional Angry Birds photo here! 🙂

As you can see the view from above was awesome, but I must admit it was pretty awkward. Since the tower gets narrow as you reach the top you can feel how it swings on the wind. And it was quite windy up there! 🙂

One of the islands is a home to an old Stock exchange that is known for it’s Dragon Spire that is made of three tails twined together. It represents the kingdom of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. It is located next to Christiansborg palace, one of several royal palaces in the city.

One of well known Danish people is Hans Christian Andersen, and the biggest boulevard in the city has his name.

A big statue of H.C. Andersen overlooks the worlds famous entertainment park Tivoli. Even though we did not visit Tivoli this time, it remains one of the most important parks and sights in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen is loaded with parks and we’ve been in Botanic gardens, The Amalie Garden, Kastellet – that is actually a fort but surrounded with a park, and in the Rosenborg Castle Gardens.

One thing that astonished me is the level of cleanness and ecology developed in Denmark. Most of the product people buy and use have a “Økologisk” label meaning all things are “organic”. Soaps, shampoos, beers, foods and drinks. Everything is labelled as “organic”.

I remember that I was very surprised back in 2006 with the prices in Denmark. All junk food, crisps, cigarettes and alcohol prices were two to three times higher than the healthier options, which is still not the case in the rest of Europe. This has obviously gone to a totally next level in Scandinavia, and it looks good to me. If it’s true and not just a marketing move. 🙂

In the end, when in Denmark it makes no sense not to visit one of the Lego stores. In the city centre you’ll see the typical Copenhagen image, Nyhavn and cyclist made of Lego blocks.

Cycling culture is so strong in Denmark that there is a thing called “The Copenhagenize Index” which is an Index of friendliness towards cycling. To make it funnier Copenhagen and Denmark are second, just behind Amsterdam. 🙂 There is an estimation (available on Wikipedia and online) that Denmark is gaining 1.22 Danish Crones per mile, while driving a car generates a loss of 0.69 Danish Crones per mile. If you multiply that by the number of cyclist and number of miles per day, it seems that cycling is an important economic factor as well.

We really enjoyed beautiful Copenhagen, and I think we might visit it again. 🙂

If nothing, to visit Legoland.

However, to save you from information overload, there will be some more posts about Copenhagen soon, as it really is a special place. 🙂